A place for UMA Staff and Cadets to practice their forum skills and provide commentary upon their training and game questions. Field army officers and commanders may also participate at their liberty.Benny Havens was the name of the tavern built beneath the Hudson River bluffs adjacent to the West Point Academy. (See: https://westpointcivilwar.wordpress.com ... allen-poe/)

Good morning. Harry Kellogg reporting for duty. I currently living in the northern most community in Wisconsin on Lake Superior. Previously I worked on a Incident Management Assistance Team for FEMA. No FEMA does not have black helicopters, internment camps or is planning on taking over the world and yes my grandfather's cousin was The Kellogg, I'm not rich however.

I started out at 10 years old playing Stratego in 1961, and have been hooked on simulations and war games ever since. Avalon Hill's Gettysburg was my first real simulation. I have incredibly bad luck with die rolls. I once lost 33 armies to my opponents 1 army in Risk. That's right 11 straight losing rolls.

I am a life long amature military historian and have read almost everything written about the American Civil War. Being blessed with the world's worst memory, I forget many of the details of the battles, This means I can read about the same battle and not remember who wins and how.

I have written three books on a fictitious World War Three starting in 1946. The amount of research needed is astounding and I am now an expert on Soviet spies, late war German SAMs, Polonium, pigeons, the Savan Trout, midget submarines and dozens of other things I never imagined. The genre is Alternative History and many have been written about the ACW.

I've been around the world, to 49 states, have 4 kids and 5 grandkids, would move to New Zealand in a flash if one of my kids moved there and worked with the CDC on the Ebola crisis. Retired and ready to play some games.

I really appreciate the dedication and hard work that this whole organization represents and will play hard and have fun while doing it.

That's a very fine, first posting, and we're very glad to have you with us, Harry! I hope that you find your tenure to be one filled with satisfaction and enjoyment.

I, too, find myself re-reading my own ACW library, some titles three or four times. This past October I turned three-score and ten, which means I've got about 10 more years of gaming ahead of me, maybe more...at least I hope so!

A word of caution for you: be careful around General Danner, there at the academy. He's been known to steal boots and sabers from unsuspecting, new officers! He also takes far too many vacations and considers himself an expert on fine wines.

In Major General Kolcun you have one of our best Instructors.

General Jos. C. Meyer,Union Army Chief of StaffCommander, Army of the Shenandoah(2011-2014 UA GinC)

I have never taken a junior officers fighting implements. And while I'm on the taking subject, General Meyer left the AotC Army to head east in Command position. When he did he took the whole stash of our Army's potables confiscated from the liberation of the Missouri and Mississippi Valley corridor's southern gentry. Now he dines with delight and extolls the virtue of purloined world-wide wines who' value must be endless. However, I must draw you attention to General Mark Nelms, who drinks on the junior officer's tab while keeping such great wadges of cash that would keep me in vacations for several years. No sir, have fun and my tent flap is always open for some great fun, food, and frolic. Salute.

Welcome Cadet Kellog! Don't believe everything General Danner tells you, he tends to speak in half truths. Now if you'll just buy me a drink I'll be happy to tell you about the time I fought off an entire company of Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry while only armed with a butter knife and mounted on a donkey. Yes, you may have to buy several drinks as my throat is rather parched and I'd hate for it to get all scratchy while telling of that incredible engagement.

On a more serious note I love to read alternate history so I went out and picked up the first book in your series. Looks intriguing.

I never read the stories, just look at the pictures - and I do go back and take another look at those pictures, again and again (keep some in the outhouse specifically for that purpose). My Civil War books that don't have any pictures, I put to good use. For example, when my wife turns too fast at the dinner table and cuts off a table leg because she hasn't trimmed her toe nails in a few years, then I use one of those books under the table leg. If the table is a little too high, you only have to tear out a few pages. Apply a little molasses between books and they ain't going nowhere. And people try to tell me that I ain't got no class nor smarts. Welcome aboard, but I've got to go. My friend and I are going out snipe hunting for the third night in a row. We'll bag some tonight, I just feel it.